For northeasterners still buried under two feet of snow, don't you wish you were partying someplace warm and wild right now? Like Rio de Janeiro, for example?

It's Carnval season, that crazy time of year where Brazil literally shuts down and people, most of them in Rio, meander drunk on Bohemia and caipirinhas down Avenida Atlantica. It's a meat market.

Those who live too far from the heart of the Sambodromo where samba dancers dance on floats that give the Rose Bowl Parade and Macy's Thanksgiving Parade a run for their money, watch it all on Globo television. It's 24/7 for three days straight until it ends with a very odd contest to see which samba school gave us the best float and the best dancers. And these guys are dead serious about this, it's almost scary if not totally bizarre.

But that's beside the point. Like that chubby bird Pedro says in the animation film Rio, "I want to party, I want to samba"...if you get the idea, and you want to make like a bird and fly away to Rio next year, here's the way to do it in style in 2014, according to my friends at Dehouche Travel.